Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-TX28) joined residents from Atascosa, Bexar, Hidalgo, La Salle, McMullen, Starr, Webb, Wilson, and Zapata counties for a Telephone Town Hall.  The Congressman hosted the event to facilitate a question and answer session with people throughout the district about issues facing their community, particularly matters related to Social Security and Medicare.  Sylvia Serrano, District Manager at the U.S. Social Security Administration, accompanied Cuellar. 

Cuellar uses Telephone Town Halls to connect with constituents while he is in Washington, D.C. during weeks that Congress is in session. Over 4,000 constituents participated in the phone call.

“This Telephone Town Hall was designed to focus specifically on addressing the issues and inquiries the people and our community have about Social Security and Medicare,” said Congressman Cuellar.  “I am very grateful to Social Security Administration, District Manager Sylvia Serrano, for joining us during the call and sharing her expertise on these issues. I wanted to be able to hear from residents in the area, in their own voice, about how I could provide them with a response to their inquiries related to Social Security and Medicare.”

During the call, Cuellar conducted a poll with the callers asking if they believed in increasing the full retirement age further to help close Social Security’s funding gap.  Sixty-nine percent of respondents said the current retirement age should remain the same, while 31 percent said the retirement age should change.

Representative Cuellar’s Congressional office in Washington D.C. plans to hold several Telephone Town Halls throughout the year.